IU Auditorium: closed for summer?

The air conditioner is still on and vacuum cleaners are running, pushed by red "staff"-imprinted T-shirts wandering about like mildly agitated ants. The Thomas Hart Benton murals look down, clamoring "respect me, for this is a house of the arts." The box office is open, taking ticket orders for the upcoming season and for events held at other venues, but no ticket events are held there this summer. Are the people vacuuming in vain? \nDoug Booher, director of the IU Auditorium, said the box office is not the only vestige of the large space open for service. More frequently, parents of incoming freshmen come in to watch introductory videos, inundating them with IU-is-groovy-ness and attempting to ease the paranoia associated with sending children off to school. The IU Auditorium also plays host to a number of conferences over the summer months: the National Junior Classical League Convention, the Southern Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church and several scientific assemblies. This weekend Walden University, an online institution, held its graduation in front of the IU Auditorium.\nIU Auditorium Stage Manager John DeLong said that half of summertime is spent doing paperwork. \n"We spend a lot of time catching up on documentation and paperwork," he said while taking a breath from setting the stage for Walden University's graduation ceremony. "It's also a good time to take time off."\nBut freshman orientation and weekly weddings keep the staff somewhat on-guard. If you've got $3,000, you could have a wedding reception for 250 held in the "Hall of Murals" also known as the foyer, for which a limited staff of part-timers will assemble stages and all the understood elements of ceremonial celebration. Booher said there's usually one per weekend. \nWhile the IU Auditorium employs 65 full-time staff during the school year, the number goes down to 15 in the summer, with only a fraction of the number of part-time student and volunteer workers. \nSarah Myers, a student employed at the Ticketmaster box office, said the IU Auditorium ticket office takes orders for only non-Music School events, including the Wells-Metz Theatre, Ruth N. Halls Theatre and the Brown County Playhouse. These venues are hosting events during the summertime. For this and for booking fall-spring tickets in advance, the IU Auditorium box office remains open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday to Friday. \nFor more information or to purchase tickets for the upcoming season, call the box office at 855-1103 or visit www.iuauditorium.com.